Eli had been puzzled when he had found Belladonna this morning, sleeping in her study and her gown damp, slightly ripped at some parts, with the hem of her dress, burnt a little.
Suspicion had hit him like a swinging brick, but he hung onto denial.
She couldn't possibly be dreaming of the Bride Thief. That was impossible.
He would have known way before now if she was.
He had tried to convince himself that the dampness was from sweat. He had even deluded himself into thinking she was pregnant and excessive sweating was a sign of pregnancy.
As for the burnt hem, maybe she had read overnight again and caused a fire, which she had already put out.
It wouldn't be the first time his Donna was causing a fire from her nightly readings. As for the ripped parts of her dress, he had told himself that her dress had suffered that, while she had managed to put out the fire all on her own.
With half his mind believing that she was sick and hiding it from him so he wouldn't have more to be worried about or most likely pregnant and didn't even know it, and the other half leaning heavily towards suspicion, with her dagger, Eli had ripped out a part of her dress and given it to the physician to figure out what exactly was going on. It would have been better if they could run the test on her directly but they were highly skilled, they would be able to make do with that, at least to determine what the problem or surprise joy might be.
Only for one of the maids working with the Physician to return to him and confirm his later suspicion.
It wasn't sweat, Belladonna wasn't sick nor pregnant.
River water?
From where? Definitely not her study!
Belladonna had been fooling him!
Lying to him.
And allowing his enemy to be with her in her dreams.
For how long had this been going on?
Eli's grip tightened around his golden staff, as he came to a stop right in front of Belladonna's room.
His bunch of keys clanked together, as he turned one in the lock. He stepped in, trying to fight the emotions that threatened to explode within him, fury clouding his judgment.
He walked in, heading straight to one of the many locked doors that were attached to the room.
He only had the keys to those rooms and they had been locked for a very long time.
Eli turned the key in the lock, and the door pushed open easily, revealing the coffin on the other side, with the number 200 engraved on the surface of the mahogany.
Slowly, he took off his mask, stepped in, and shut the door behind him.
Soon, he was standing right in front of the coffin that was leaning against the wall of the dark room, his fingers trailing the numbers slowly.
When the silence finally settled on his shoulders and the loneliness became one with him, pulling along with it the implication of how everything had turned out, he covered his face and wept.
It was happening again.
It just took a little longer this time.
This was yet another Bride he would lose.
It drew a dagger through his heart, the pain taking over him.
"Do not take her from me. Please, not this one."
______
______
Belladonna woke up from a nightmare.
Still in bondage, she had fallen asleep and her dream had been terrifying.
She had dreamt of brides in the coffins Eli had assured her had no bodies in them, their voices begging her to set them free as they tried to struggle against the chains that bonded them to their wooden cages.
Known and unknown faces, telling her to run, save them, hide.
It sent a chill down her spine.
Sweat ran down her forehead, over the dry blood that had now caked on the surface of her skin. She could feel perspiration rolling down her back. Her arms ached from the pain of still being hung to either side of the wall. In fact, her entire body ached, ached to the point of numbness.
Belladonna wasn't sure how she had been hanging here, or how long she had been asleep, or when she even fell asleep.
The room was still as dark as it was before, although the candles seemed to have been changed. The ones that had been there earlier must have burnt out.
That meant that she must have been here for hours.
Belladonna was thirsty, hungry, alone, and broken.
The door was suddenly thrown open, Eli rushed in, apologies rolling off his tongue as he settled down a tray of food and water in front of her, then started unshackling her.
Belladonna said nothing, not because she couldn't because she was still gagged, but because she just didn't have the strength to anymore.
Eli flinched when he saw the blood on her forehead, disappointment flashing in his eyes at what he had done.
"I am sorry."
She nodded, staring at him blankly.
Kneeling in front of her, he hesitated before taking off the gag, doing so only when he had confirmed from her body language that she had no intention to speak.
With a sigh, she slipped from her knees and sat on the floor.
Tired.
Eli fed her and she ate.
The sound of the spoon clicking against the ceramic plate cut through the heavy silence, along with Belladonna's occasional gulps from the goblet of water Eli had brought for her.
Eli had a lot of questions, but there was no way she could answer them truthfully. She seemed to have been dreaming about the Bride Thief for a very long time, listening to his dictates and obeying his commands.
Had she ever been truthful to him or was everything a lie he ordered her to create?
"Did you ever love me?"
His gaze was fixed on her, heavy, unmoving.
Belladonna's gaze however was zeroed on the red marks the chain had left behind on her dark skin, her hands trailing the lines, as her eyes fogged with tears.
"Or did he tell you to pretend that you did?"